Chelsea or Kingston hospital?

[AR34]

Hello.
I'm new to this site and I'm 5 weeks pregnant with my first.
I'm a little nervous as I don't have any family in the UK (aside from my husband) and only childless friends living in London, so I'll probably be using this forum for my many, many questions!

Firstly, my GP has told me to chose a hospital and the two that are nearby are Chelsea & Westminster and Kingston.

Just wondering if anyone can give me their opinion on either or both hospitals as I'm finding it difficult to chose.

Thanks so much!

I would choose Chelsea but I'm a bit biased as had a bad experience at Kingston. I'd also recommend you sign up for a NCT class as you need other mummy friends when you have a new baby!

Thanks for the tip leannac!

I'm at Kingston and so far have been impressed. I have a pre-existing condition which means I have to go every two weeks and have found the care and follow up to be good. The clinics are very busy, though... I also have not actually had the baby, and I guess that is perhaps the key determinative factor!

A friend had her baby at Chelsea and Westminster and wasn't impressed, but I can't now recall why...

P.s. I'd probably just do the drive, and see which one is easiest / quickest to get to from home. Oh, and btw you are actually allowed to go to any hospital which suits you. Kingston is geographically closest to us, but our postcode would have seen us put in another catchment area. We simply ignored that and I asked my GP to refer me to where I wanted to go.